BEFORE racing at the weekend, there was every chance that Juddmonte might have welcomed three Group 1 winners, and all in races sponsored by Tattersalls where they are major vendors, and buyers of stock on occasions. According to the Tattersalls website, since 1998 they have sold over 2,900 lots for more than 110,000,000gns, while since 2006 their selective buying has seen them sign for 46 lots costing almost 22,000,000gns.

When the weekend racing was over, Juddmonte had taken one of the three Group 1s, the Irish 2000 Guineas with Field Of Gold who beat another runner in their silks, Cosmic Year, into second, seen their Group 1-winning filly Kalpana make a most satisfactory return to racing when third in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, but Swelter was no match on this occasion for Lake Victoria and company in the Irish 1000 Guineas. Inexperience may have been a large factor in the case of Swelter.

Everyone recognises the Juddmonte organisation as one of the world’s great breeding entities, and when it comes to make purchases at public auction their success rate is enviable. Their new stallion Chaldean is a perfect example, while the latest is the weekend classic winner Field Of Gold. In the competitive world of bloodstock sales, the only disappointment for sponsors Tattersalls is that the three-year-old son of Kingman (Invincible Spirit) was a big-priced foal at rivals Goffs.

Already winner of the Group 3 Craven Stakes, and then runner-up in the Group 1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, Field Of Gold was recording a tenth group/graded stakes success in 2025 for a horse carrying the Juddmonte colours, and was their second Group 1 after the previous week’s Lockinge Stakes win. On hand to celebrate Field Of Gold’s victory was the colt’s breeders, Bobby Donworth and Honora Corridan of Roundhill Stud.

It is incredible how similar Field Of Gold’s race record is to that of his sire. Both colts won the Group 3 Solario Stakes at two, were second in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket (Kingman chased home Night Of Thunder, beaten half a length), and both made amends in the Irish 2000 Guineas.

Kingman went on to add three more Group 1 wins, in the St James’s Palace Stakes, Sussex Stakes and Prix Jacques Le Marois. What a bright future awaits Field Of Gold.

Field Of Gold is Group 1 winner number 14, and one of 94 stakes winners, for the European champion Kingman who stood his first season in 2015 at £55,000, and now costs £125,000, His fee for three years was as high as £150,000.

Well treated

After racing on Saturday, Bobby Donworth commented, on his way back to Limerick, that he was “very relieved to have bred such a monster of a horse.”

On Monday, Honora was in reflective mood, grateful for the success, and thrilled that the colt is in such capable hands. “We have always been so well treated by Juddmonte, and couldn’t be happier for them with this success,” she said. The win is also a boost to the many members of the family that the couple still have.

What is in the pipeline? Field Of Gold has a yearling half-sister by Ghaiyyath (Dubawi), and if she turns up at a sale this autumn, she will be a headline act. This year Princess De Lune (Shamardal) was covered again by Kingman. There are many branches to this family, but I sensed that one member of it in particular is special to Honora.

Her son Tim is training a two-year-old daughter of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) out of Serena’s Storm (Statue Of Liberty), a half-sister to Princess De Lune and the dam of Group 1 winner Rizeena (Iffraaj). She is named Serena Go and is owned in partnership with Trevor Stewart.

Field Of Gold is the latest star in a female family that has been good to the Donworth clan since their purchase of his grandam, the four-year-old winner Princess Serena (Unbridled’s Song), for $150,000 at the end of that season’s racing in 2003. In the two decades since, she is the dam of nine winners, a Group 1 winner and Group 1 second, three stakes winners, and is grandam of two Group 1 winners and a dual Grade 1 runner-up. Field Of Gold is the seventh blacktype winner under the mare.

Princess De Lune

Back for a moment to Field Of Gold’s dam, Princess De Lune. This daughter of Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway) was offered for sale in Book 1 at Tattersalls in 2015, and returned unsold at 300,000gns. She was put in training with Roger Charlton, and won easily on her debut at three. She failed to build on that in three further outings, and the decision to retire her to the paddocks was made.

Ironically, she travelled to Banstead Manor Stud for a mating with Oasis Dream (Green Desert), an established sire who would hopefully give her every opportunity to make a flying start at stud – and it worked. Given that Oasis Dream’s fee in 2018 was £30,000, Bobby and Honora would have been thrilled when the resulting filly sold to Shadwell during the pandemic for £450,000 at the Goffs Orby Sale. Roger Varian saddled Zanbaq to win half of her six starts, including at listed level. Zanbaq’s first produce is a yearling colt by Frankel (Galileo).

Princess De Lune missed a year before having her second foal, another filly named Lunar Eclipse (Night Of Thunder). Displaying their usual shrewdness, her breeders used the stallion when he was standing for €25,000 (he is six times that fee now), and they reaped a harvest when the filly sold to Avenue Bloodstock at Goffs for €350,000. She made a winning debut at two.

Fine start

Field Of Gold is the third produce of Princess De Lune. Given the fine start made in the sales ring for her offspring, Bobby and Honora significantly upgraded the mare, and she went to Kingman who stood for £150,000. The grey colt, who takes his colour from the female side of the family, was sold as a foal at Goffs, and Juddmonte signed for him at €530,000. He was the second-highest priced foal at the sale, and the top three were all sired by Kingman.

As a matter of interest, all three have raced. King’s Charter, a half-brother to Group 1 winner Skitter Scatter, topped the sale at €550,000, was resold a year later for €650,000 to Godolphin, and has been placed, while Pretty Diva was sold to Japan for €460,000, and won two starts and is stakes-placed.

Juddmonte bought one other foal at that 2022 sale in Goffs, a colt by Wootton Bassett for €340,000. That sibling to Arrest is called Detain, and he has won three of his five starts, and most recently was not beaten far when sixth in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas.

Zabeel Prince

One could write forever about the dam side of Field Of Gold’s family; such are the successes it has enjoyed. In summary, Princess De Lune is a half-sister to Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan winner Zabeel Prince (Lope De Vega) – what a pity he was gelded before his biggest win - and a full-sister to dual Group 2 winner and multiple Group 1-placed Australian runner Puissance De Lune (Shamardal) and Group 2 Middleton Stakes winner Queen Power (Shamardal).

As if all that was not enough, Princess De Lune’s half-sister Serena’s Storm (Statue Of Liberty), is the winning dam of Rizeena (Iffraaj) and Summer Romance (Kingman).

The former won the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes (getting a delighted Clive Brittain in dancing mood and with Bobby and Honora Donworth in attendance), and Royal Ascot’s Group 1 Coronation Stakes the following year. Summer Romance was a Group 2 winner in Dubai, and was twice denied a Grade 1 win by less than a length, in the Diana Stakes at Saratoga and the Just A Game Stakes at Belmont Park.